Sunday, December 14, 2014

After talking about it for more than a year, I finally finished and hit the "Save and Publish" button! ARC feedback has been positive so far, so I hope fans of The Thirst Within will love this short novella (25k words) about Corben and Charlotte.

Here's a lovely piece written by D.R. Johnson about the novella (from back when it was called the Thirst of Corben):
http://www.thephoenixcurse.com/2014/12/thirst-of-corben-by-johi-jenkins.html

And if you haven't had the chance to read The Thirst Within, watch for it in the next few days (December 15 or 16) you'll be able to download for free!

Here's the cover:

PART 2 IS BACK ON THE TABLE! Which means I'm working on it, on IT and not on anything else like little novella distractions.

Thursday, June 26, 2014

This is my first attempt at one. Thanks to Christin Haws at kikiwritesabout.com for introducing me to this simple yet brilliant idea. I'm just going to answer four questions about my writing, then tag three author buddies to do the same next week. Then I'm going back to not posting for another few months. ;)

"Answer me these questions three... er, four:"

1) What are you working on?

The Thirst Within series. Right now only Part 1 is published, but last November during NaNoWriMo I wrote most of Part 2. But somewhere along the way I had the brilliant (read: incredibly stupid) idea to write a novella about one of the main character's past (Corben's), to get some backstory out of the sequel. This novella is about 75% done and it features the vampire Corben, told from his point of view. So in a way I'm working on two things.

2) How does you work differ from others of its genre?

Vampire-wise, my guys have lots in common with a lot of books out there. But there are some differences.

The main one is, there's no bursting into flames in the sun - because, well, I couldn't figure out why. How could light do that to anything? So my vamps are night creatures, but direct sunlight won't kill them. It can't! And also, never ever will my vampires turn into bats. Or worse, mist! That's just impossible!

3) Why do you write what you do?

It's all I read when I was young: young adult paranormal romances. Then I grew up but my tastes didn't, apparently. Now I can read other genres but I don't like them as much. So, naturally, I'm drawn to write to my favorite genre.

Plus, sometimes when I read a YA paranormal story I'd yell: "No! [Insert some random creature power here] is not physically possible! Someone better do something about this..." And then well, I figured, I can just write off whatever bothers me about all these stories. Sure, I'll write one myself.

4) How does your writing process work?

I'd like to say that I write an outline first, then I turn it into a book. But what ends up happening is I write a very general outline, not quite finish it, and start working from it. Then as I write, scenes pop up in my head and my original outline is changed. Sometimes I don't even write everything in order. I'll go back and add scenes in between already-written chapters. When all is written and I think I'm done, I call that my first draft. I read through it and change a bunch of things. Then I'm done. Then I read it again for editing/ proofing... it takes a while.

***

And that's it. I'm done with these four questions! How exciting. Now let's tag my writing buddies. These guys are answering these same questions next week: check them out!

-Victoria Clapton at http://southerndisappointments.blogspot.com.
Sometimes I wonder if Victoria and I are the same person. Then I stop doing drugs and smile, and realize it's just we have a whole bunch of things in common. Victoria is the author of the Dark Light Saga, which she has published, and other secret work that I'm not going to discuss, but I promise it's amazing!

-D.R. Johnson at http://www.thephoenixcurse.com
D.R. is another favorite author of mine. Her series The Phoenix Curse is a brilliant new take on zombies. She has published After - Part 1 and After - Part 2, and is in the process of finishing Part 3. As one of her adoring fans I have to say I'm thrilled, and I can't wait to read it!

Last but not least...

-The elusive K LeMaire at http://twiddlingurthumbs.com
This guy I've known for 10 years. I met him at a Circuit City. He checked me out, I checked him out. Then we went out for a movie and we've been playing videogames together ever since. He's now my husband and father of my future children. K LeMaire wrote one of the books published under my name, Margarette, and has written about 5-10 outlines for stories that I've been sworn to turn into books if he ever falls into a coma.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Summer is finally here! Well, technically it starts this Saturday on the solstice. But I live in Chicago, where we only get winter, a few months of summer, a month of Fall if we're lucky, and what's that other one? Spring? Hahahahaha no. When the better part of the year is cold and nasty, we tend to go crazy with the sun, and say summer is here the second we get anything above 65 degrees. Actually, true northerners may say that about 60 degrees... but I'm from the south (the way south) so forgive me for still wearing a sweater when it's 60 out.

But enough about the weather. My author friend Christin Haws (http://kikiwritesabout.com) enlisted me to do a blog hop about my writing process, and I'll have that next week on Thursday for your reading pleasures. In the meantime check out her blog; she did hers this week!

Wait. Let's go back to talking about the weather. The arrival of sunny days inspires me to work (in the form of impending deadlines and doom). So this is me getting back in the writing chair. I'm going to do a free books promo in the upcoming weeks (Resurgence is always free!) and I'm embarrassed because I still haven't finished that sequel I promised you. So I may just have to post more teaser chapter stuff! Bear with me!

PS – for no reason at all, a cat picture. Here's my kitty Ripley; see the look of love on her face... you can tell she adores me.

Monday, March 31, 2014

I'm sorry I've been away for so long... here's a free book to make up for it!

My favorite book will be FREE starting tomorrow, April 1, through Saturday April 4, 2014. Go grab a copy! (uh, wait till tomorrow)

http://amzn.com/B00C4MD7MA

But wait! Don't go away just yet! My latest book, Margarette, will be free also! Starting Saturday, April 5, through April 10.

http://amzn.com/B00HSNU5NO

Because I've been terrible with updating my blog, here's what I failed to tell you about this new book:
1) It was written by K LeMaire and myself. He's like um... my husband.
2) It's a contemporary romance, YA/NA.
3) It's Part 1 of a [currently] two-part series. Part 2 will be more of a NA romance.
4) No paranormal anything :(
5) Here's the blurb!

An empty house and a negligent mother lead small-town Margarette into the deviant web of a new set of friends. A lapse in judgment, trust put in the wrong people—and sweet Margarette becomes the victim of a social disaster, setting in motion a chain of events that will alter her life forever. Social death doesn't come without a silver lining. Margarette finds herself the interest of town heartthrob Tommy Gallager. She is determined to like him, if only to spite the friends that betrayed her. Bad choices keep piling up, and she suddenly becomes trapped in a relationship that she doesn't want. But when she comes across a forbidden book that leads her to believe she can find true love, the type of love that is only written and not seen in real life . . .will she be able to resist the pull of an impossible quest? Or will the small town drown her ambition?
**Margarette is tailored for a young adult audience and contains language, mild violence and sexual situations that are not recommended for readers under the age of 17 years old.